With all of the talk about new online distribution channels, changing viewing habits and increasing pressure from other advertising channels, traditional linear TV viewing continues to be the 800-pound gorilla in the room. With on average more than 4 hours spent per day watching traditional linear TV, it is still by far the largest media consumption channel with a predicted drop of just seven minutes time spent watching linear TV this year. In fact, eMarketer and PwC expect the U.S. TV advertising market to grow by billions of dollars in the upcoming years.
Even with this very healthy outlook, traditional TV advertising will see massive changes in the years to come, driven by new technology and the huge $70 billion market opportunity. In 2016 we will see three major changes driven by incumbents and new players alike.
Prediction 1: 2016 will become the year of accountability
Online video continues to grow, slowly cannibalizing TV as it offers more metrics and therefore is more easily justifiable. Still, TV offers distinct advantages over online video: With no viewability and fraud issues, it is a proven mass-market medium. A medium which attracts more and more "digital first" players such as mobile gaming and e-commerce companies. As they discover TV as a marketing channel, they start to demand more metrics similar to what they are used to in online advertising as well. Or, as it was said many times during the NYC Television Week Advanced Advertising conference in October: The TV industry needs better measurement and more accountability. Set-top box viewership data and TV attribution will provide additional metrics to bridge the measurement gap.
Prediction 2: Moving beyond Nielsen: The new ad currencies
The continuing fragmentation of TV (be it more TV channels, changing viewer behavior, new distribution channels) pushes the boundaries of the traditional TV panel-based measurement. At the same time, more viewing data is available than ever before. Set-top box data allows very granular measurement, relying on millions instead of tens of thousands of households. Combining this data with other data sources allows advertisers to move beyond the standard demographics. The comScore/Rentrak merger is only the first step, with "secondary guarantees", "advanced targeting" and "engagement driven metrics" on the rise. With its data driven approach, Programmatic TV will serve as facilitator for these new ad currencies.
Prediction 3: Bridging the gap: First cross-media approaches
TV and online are still treated as two separate buckets. However, as user behavior is changing – moving back and forth between screens – these silos are slowly breaking up. Integrated planning across TV and online video promises to maximize the ROI across channels, offering cross-screen frequency and reach measurement. Many cross-platform announcements have been made, both from TV and the online players (Clypd & SpotXchange & Tivo, Sky, TubeMogul, Videoamp). In 2016, we will see an increasing adoption of this new technology.
wywy offers TV Analytics solutions to help TV advertisers understand which TV ad slots drive most traffic to their website. With wywy’s proprietary TV Sync technology advertisers can also synchronize TV and online advertising to reach viewers on their second screen devices and increase ad awareness.
